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Sinkholes around the world

( Updated: 08/22/2013 )

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A large sinkhole appears along Lemond Road in Owatonna, Minn., in 2010. Heavy rains brought on flooding in numerous locations in southeastern Minnesota, including Owatonna, where the Maple Creek spilled over its banks. David Joles/The Star Tribune/AP

An engineer surveys in front of a home where a sinkhole opened up on March 1, 2013, in Seffner, Fla. A man screamed for help and disappeared as a large sinkhole opened under the bedroom of the house, his brother said. The brother called police and frantically tried to help. An arriving deputy pulled him from the still-collapsing house. Chris O'Meara/AP

A giant sinkhole triggered by the rains of tropical storm Agatha is seen in Guatemala City, Guatemala, May 31, 2010. More than 94,000 people were evacuated as the storm buried homes under mud, swept away a highway bridge near Guatemala City, and opened up sinkholes in the capital. Casa Presidencial/Reuters

Divers make their way through a freshwater sinkhole, known as a cenote, in Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula. Henry Watkins & Yibran Aragon/Reuters

This is a view of the world's deepest geothermal sinkhole, El Zacatón, in the northwestern Mexican state of Tamaulipas, in 2007. Tomas Bravo/Reuters

A truck hangs over the edge of a sinkhole that opened up in the parking lot of Hughes Relocation Services, June 2012, in Salt Springs, Fla., because of tropical storm Debby. Alan Youngblood/The Ocala Star-Banner/AP

A giant sinkhole that swallowed several homes is seen in Guatemala City, 2007. Daniel LeClair/Reuters

A large sinkhole endangers the home of Cory Greenway off CR 630 West in Frostproof, Fla., 2010. Pierre DuCharme/The Ledger/AP

Workers attend to a landslide northeast of Montreal, as shown from the air, 2010. A sinkhole triggered by the landslide swallowed a house in Saint-Jude, Quebec. Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press/AP

This is an aerial view of a 50-yard-long sinkhole in the San Diego suburb of La Jolla, Calif., 2007. It destroyed one home as it sank into the disintegrating hillside, and five others were damaged. No one was injured in the slide. John Gibbins/San Diego Union-Tribune/AP

Workers repair a cave-in area on a road in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, May 27, 2012. The cause of the cave-in, measuring about 6 meters (20 ft.) in depth, 15 meters (49 ft.) in length, and 10 meters (33 ft.) in width, is still under investigation. China Daily/Reuters

An aerial view shows the debris of a residential building and a destroyed road in the village of Nachterstedt, July 18, 2009. Three residents were missing in the eastern German village of Nachterstedt after their lakeside home and another building suddenly collapsed into the water. A 350-meter stretch of shoreline gave way next to an old open-cast coal mine converted to a lake, about 170 kilometers southwest of Berlin. Gemeindeverwaltung Nachterstedt/Reuters

Rescue workers remove a bus with a crane from a Lisbon street hole, Nov. 25, 2003. The bus was parked on a street in Lisbon, Portugal, when the ground began to open up and gobble it. Jose Manuel/Reuters